PERFORMING ARTS
VOCAL HEIGHTS
Since 1988, the Vero Beach Opera has
strived to bring the best from the
world of opera to the Treasure Coast
BY WILLI MILLER
If you love opera and lived in Vero Beach in 1988 you
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will remember that year as the official beginning of opera
in the community. Eloise Rodger founded the Vero
Beach Opera Guild that year, with a devoted group of
friends determined to bring a true opera experience
to Vero. For more than 15 years the members developed
programs of musical performance, opera studies for adults
and the introduction of opera to elementary school students
through “Opera in the Classroom.” Singers were sponsored,
scholarships were awarded and membership grew.
Then, in the summer of 2003, the Guild was reorganized.
Rosemary Gagliardi, a guiding member, reached out to Joan
Ortega-Cowan and her husband, Roman, for assistance in
giving the group a new direction.
According to Joan, now president of Vero Beach Opera, “A
new board was elected who supported a more professional
operatic platform with a more ambitious mission to produce,
promote, support and present grand opera through operatic
>>
KEN HOWARD
Marcello Giordani, a favorite of Vero Beach Opera fans, in his 2006 Madama Butterfly performance
for the Metropolitan Opera in New York.